Rockies lock up fourth straight 105-loss campaign

The Colorado Rockies face a stark reality: they could lose every single remaining game for the rest of the season and still end up 14 games better than last year. The ugly truth? That improvement would leave them with exactly 105 losses. On Tuesday, the franchise locked in its fourth straight campaign of 100 or more defeats after dropping a 7-2 decision to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Coors Field. They join an exclusive club as the first team since the expansion New York Mets between 1962 and 1965 to hit this mark, ranking fifth overall in such history.

While they will likely finish better by at least a dozen games, perhaps more if the squad rallies late, the year remains another disappointment. First-year manager Warren Schaeffer insists the group must extract lessons from the struggle. "You learn your hardest lessons in difficulty in life," Schaeffer noted during his rookie season as Colorado's full-time skipper. He added that last season everyone discussed wanting to feel this frustration and never feeling it again. The players remembered those talks, yet they lost 100 games once more. A ton of lessons lie hidden in these losses. Without learning them now, the team will not get better.

The moribund Rockies have battled mightily for over a decade and a half. They have reached the postseason just twice since 2010 and have failed to win a series there since falling short in the World Series back in 2007. Their pitching staff has once again become the major problem, posting a team ERA of 5.57 that leads all of baseball. Colorado has finished with the worst team ERA every season since 2022. If they do so again this year, they will join only three clubs since 1913 to hold the worst ERA in the majors for five straight seasons.

Despite the rough campaign, the organization holds a couple of promising pieces for the future. Rookie first baseman TJ Rumfield entered Tuesday ranked fifth in the National League with a .300 batting average and topped all qualified rookies in both batting average and on-base percentage. Hunter Goodman, Colorado's 26-year-old catcher, earned All-Star honors for a second straight season. He sits one home run shy of becoming the first Rockies player to hit 40 homers in a season since 2019.

Veteran pitcher Kyle Freeland, who has spent ten seasons with the team, says the group is moving in the right direction. "I think everything we're doing inside this clubhouse, coaches, players, front office, all staff, has been doing an incredible job to make sure that this team and this org is heading in the direction that is winning," Freeland said. You see it happening. The Associated Press contributed to this report.